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Bonus: using standard equipment, how do casts of the other shows fare?

I get this really disturbing mental picture of a Facehugger trying to impregnate Seven of Nine, only for things to backfire horribly when her nanoprobes break down the embryo and infect the Facehugger...

I get this really disturbing mental picture of a Facehugger trying to impregnate Seven of Nine, only for things to backfire horribly when her nanoprobes break down the embryo and infect the Facehugger...

So, let's say that somehow, someway, Kirk and Co. find themselves on LV-426 during the events of Aliens (1986). The crew encounters a distress signal and, due to plot interference, their transporters don't work. Kirk orders a shuttlecraft down to the colony to investigate. Later, they find that the atmosphere is also interfering with their communicators -- they can talk to each other, but not the Enterprise, at least not without a more powerful radio. In essence, they've replaced Ripley, Burke, and the Marines.

The landing party consists of the senior staff: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Uhura, Chekov. They have their phasers, tricorders, communicators, and standard equipment (i.e. McCoy with his medicine bag, Scotty with his toolkit, etc).

From here on out, the rest of the movie plays out normally, including the power plant. Can our heroes find (but not rescue!) the colonists, defeat the Queen, and return to the Enterprise? Each round is a separate scenario, and the first time the crew meets the Xenomorphs.

Bonus: using standard equipment, how do casts of the other shows fare?

So, there is a severe problem here. One that almost certainly spells the doom of the entire crew.

There are no red shirts on this mission. They are all still on board the Enterprise.

Not only does this mean there's no one to conveniently die instead of a main character when needed on the planet, it means that something is going to go horribly wrong on the Enterprise in order to kill the necessary quota of red shirts. My guess is due to lack of contact with the senior staff, some idiot further down the chain assumed temporary command of the ship and ordered samples beamed up for scientific analysis in support of the mission, and now they've got facehuggers running rampant up there.

Within half an hour, I expect someone in engineering detonates the warp core in an effort to kill all the xenomorphs running around, while the saucer section separates, turns out to have xenomorphs, and crashes somewhere in one of the polar regions of the planet. Kirk and crew, even if they survive and succeed up to the usual extraction point, cannot get back off-planet, and only Kirk's seduction of the Alien Queen (after his bare-knuckle brawl with one of her drones) prevents them from all being eaten.

So thus they are going to be fully kitted out for battle when going down and losing contact with the Enterprise? Kirk won't mess around with deadly aliens as he has hunted down at least one Ahab-style, so beyond the standard weapons I see them maybe bringing down some high explosives or the ingredients and equipment to make some fun chemical toys that Bones & Spock could come up with to screw with things that have Acid for blood.

If they are still stuck with the standard loadout and just supplied with Info I think they are fucked as they might know better how to respond but not have the extra energy packs and such to make a winning fight out of it. They could rig a few things from the wrecked colony but like a fallen Captain in an episode of TOS I can't remember the name of said "But they just kept coming!"

Yeah, I purposely didn't put in things like phaser rifles and photon grenades simply because their limits had never been really shown (outside of illusions, of course), and they were seldom used. Of course, I'm sure they'd want that equipment eventually.

Originally Posted by numberthirty

If Ripley actually gets them to buy into the concept of the Xenomorph, I have a tough time buying that the usual "Away Mission" sort of scenario happens.

But the Plot Prophets here demand it. I am merely their Emissary. Corporeal matters do not concern them. But mortal challenge does.

Originally Posted by Guy Smiley

So, there is a severe problem here. One that almost certainly spells the doom of the entire crew.

There are no red shirts on this mission. They are all still on board the Enterprise.

Not only does this mean there's no one to conveniently die instead of a main character when needed on the planet, it means that something is going to go horribly wrong on the Enterprise in order to kill the necessary quota of red shirts. My guess is due to lack of contact with the senior staff, some idiot further down the chain assumed temporary command of the ship and ordered samples beamed up for scientific analysis in support of the mission, and now they've got facehuggers running rampant up there.

Within half an hour, I expect someone in engineering detonates the warp core in an effort to kill all the xenomorphs running around, while the saucer section separates, turns out to have xenomorphs, and crashes somewhere in one of the polar regions of the planet. Kirk and crew, even if they survive and succeed up to the usual extraction point, cannot get back off-planet, and only Kirk's seduction of the Alien Queen (after his bare-knuckle brawl with one of her drones) prevents them from all being eaten.

Yeah, I purposely didn't put in things like phaser rifles and photon grenades simply because their limits had never been really shown (outside of illusions, of course), and they were seldom used. Of course, I'm sure they'd want that equipment eventually.

Those are TNG inventions yes? I was just talking about the standard explosive charges they are sure to have by that level of technology, hell extra phasers to overload on a whim could do it. I'm sure no one would think to have a torpedo beamed down with them even in a best-case scenario.

But no Red Shirts and no Extra Gear make the Away Team something something in this case.

The thing is, they're both really lacking in feats to define them. At the very least, we'd expect the phaser rifle to be as powerful and versatile as a regular phaser, but beyond that, it's used to show how tough an enemy is when the beam just splashes off them.

A photon grenade was detonated 1200 yards away from an enemy camp for the purpose of driving them away from that camp rather than to harm or kill. Even then, Kirk said it was cutting it close. So there's at least that. Presumably the grenade, like everything else in Starfleet, has settings and variable yields, but nothing to really prove that.

But no Red Shirts and no Extra Gear make the Away Team something something in this case.

Yep. No red shirts to test the waters for them.

Originally Posted by Dr Quinch

Stop whatever you are doing and go and watch Aliens immediately. That is all.

Also remember on watching Aliens for the first time that all of the tropes you feel may be passe' in Aliens...were basically invented/popularized by Aliens. It's only "normal" now because everything stole from it - at the time, it was really like nothing else we saw.

The thing is, they're both really lacking in feats to define them. At the very least, we'd expect the phaser rifle to be as powerful and versatile as a regular phaser, but beyond that, it's used to show how tough an enemy is when the beam just splashes off them.

A photon grenade was detonated 1200 yards away from an enemy camp for the purpose of driving them away from that camp rather than to harm or kill. Even then, Kirk said it was cutting it close. So there's at least that. Presumably the grenade, like everything else in Starfleet, has settings and variable yields, but nothing to really prove that.

Well, you learn something new every day.

Yep. No red shirts to test the waters for them.

Or provide occasional spare power packs and Phasers when they inevitably die

Originally Posted by Carabas

Technically, Scotty and Uhura are redshirts.

They are as much Red Shirts as Data is a Gold Shirt. The colors you wear only matter if you don't have character shields or even a name, though a name alone is no assurance there.

Within half an hour, I expect someone in engineering detonates the warp core in an effort to kill all the xenomorphs running around, while the saucer section separates, turns out to have xenomorphs, and crashes somewhere in one of the polar regions of the planet. Kirk and crew, even if they survive and succeed up to the usual extraction point, cannot get back off-planet, and only Kirk's seduction of the Alien Queen (after his bare-knuckle brawl with one of her drones) prevents them from all being eaten.

Also remember on watching Aliens for the first time that all of the tropes you feel may be passe' in Aliens...were basically invented/popularized by Aliens. It's only "normal" now because everything stole from it - at the time, it was really like nothing else we saw.

Definitely. When I was reading a review of the LoTR movies, some idiot criticized them on the grounds that some of the stuff the characters say is cliche. But they are cliche now because Tolkien came up with them and they've been copied for decades.

Although I do think this thing of accusing things of having "tropes" has itself become a trope. By definition, everything in a story is a trope. Even a new way of presenting it is still just a new way of presenting a trope.

Superman was a beacon to the world. He didnít just save people, he made them see the best part of themselves.